Firstly, praise where praise is due. The general tone of last night's episodes, and indeed the others during this week, seems to have been right. The hanging of Betty's picture in the Rovers, the dimming of the lights and the sound of her voice barking out orders and having a laugh was emotional and well thought out.
However the show fell foul of the dreaded ret-con this week. Retroactive continuity is something usually avoided in Weatherfield. It's uses elsewhere have often left viewers feeling uncomfortable or let down. Famously, hoary old eighties oil drama "
Dallas" did it in spectacular style, trashing an entire series and all the events therein. This was feebly explained by suggesting that leading character Pam Ewing had dreamt the lot! Viewers were not impressed and so began the show's long goodbye.
Cult drama "
Prisoner Cell Block H" made a similar mess back in the 1980s too. Having lost numerous leading stars in a short space of time, the writers had relatively new characters reminiscing about people they had never met. It was a clunky, poorly thought out construct.
So then to Weatherfield and the hard-to-believe nonsense which should be termed Anniegate. By choosing to rewrite history, viewers have been left with storylines which now seem bizarre. These have, in some way, diminished Betty's character. Would she really have stood aside and see Bet Lynch fail so badly in 1995, knowing that the pub was actually hers? Are we to believe, thanks to a truly horrific piece of writing that Betty, to quote a response to an earlier blog, was a "mad old kleptomaniac" who stole pint pots whenever she got the chance. Plus, as many have pointed out, there was the awkward shoe-horning in of both Stella and Dennis, two characters who viewers never saw interact with Betty. We just have to believe that they did but somehow it all feels wrong.
In fairness though, the writers had to deal with Betty Driver's illness and sudden disappearance from the show, as well as leaving a respectful gap between her death and that of her character. At least she was at the forefront of the show for one last story and that final scene in the darkened Rovers was a fiting farewell to a much-loved woman.
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